<p>As a Kentuckian, this is akin to a national holiday. Heck, it’s even better than some holidays! Who in the CC community will stop to watch the race this afternoon? Compared to some years, there is no dominant horse and some folks are likely to cash some nice tickets (I hope me!).</p>
<p>I will…it’s going to be interesting with all twenty! Good luck to you!</p>
<p>I tried to get a CC pool going in the Cafe…wait I don’t see it.</p>
<p>I’ve been watching since Northern Dancer won!</p>
<p>i am in kentucky too. my grandfather is at Churchill downs betting on some horses :-)</p>
<p>We were raised on horseracing - every Saturday from Belmont! In fact, after my MD dad retired from private practice, he got a job in the first aid room just so he could be at the track more. I was the only 10 year-old I knew who knew how to read the Racing Form.
We’ll definitely be around the tube this evening - raising mint juleps in my dad’s memory. Gosh, I’d LOVE to be in Kentucky! have fun!!
BTW, is there a real Triple Crown contender this year? I ashame to say I don’t know.</p>
<p>I am in Las Vegas, taking my elderly parents to the local casino to wager and watch. Then on to the casino buffet!</p>
<p>While I’ve never been a horse racing fan of any sort, from time to time I do pay attention to the big races. For some reason I became obsessed with Barbaro’s injury and recovery, and was heart-broken when he had to be put down. I almost feel traumatized by the number of times they showed his injury on TV.</p>
<p>I will do my best this year to look away from the TV whenever they show clips of Eight Belles tragic ending.</p>
<p>So sad about the filly who came in second, was injured and euthanized.</p>
<p>I am done with ever watching another race. I have had horses all my life and it was really hard for me to watch the race. I watched the start with my eyes closed because there were so many horses and I was afraid of a tumble. Then I held my breath as they all jockeyed for position and I didn’t breathe until it was over and thought everyone was safe. Two horses were put down last week after injuries during eventing at Rolex and now this. It’s just too cruel. I don’t know how the winners were even able to celebrate. Even had my horse won, I would have been in tears.</p>
<p>I’m so sad and upset about the filly. I was also holding my breath and was shocked when she broke down. I’m just sick…can’t get the mental picture from my mind.</p>
<p>Good thing I had “prior obligations” and could not watch. I’m keeping my TV turned off for the next day so I would not (hopefully) catch any replays of the events. I’m so sad to hear about this terrible tragedy!</p>
<p>I was reading, online I think, about how all the horses running were descendants of Native Dancer (as was Barbaro), and that the main weakness Native Dancer had was a tendency to leg injuries. This is being accentuated, apparently, with all the inbreeding. When I read that, I worried that there would be another Barbaro this year. So sad. I always wanted a horse when I was young, but was never able to have one. However, I have watched almost every Kentucky Derby (and Preakness and Belmont Stakes) since I was nine or so. I just hate it when something like this happens.</p>
<p>I missed the Derby today too, and am now glad I did. I also would have a very hard time celebrating after what happened. These injuries are just so devastating. When you see what happened to Barbaro and Ruffian (so heartbreaking) not to mention the thousands of other horses, it really does make you wonder about this sport. They are bred and built for speed, and the trainers keep their fingers crossed that they won’t break down. And even for the ones that make it through their careers unscathed, the large percentage do not live out their days happily on farms and rolling fields.</p>
<p>This year’s Derby was certainly not representative of the typical race. Eight Belle’s breakdown just put a cloud over the whole thing, but there were no really interesting backstories to make you gravitate to a horse. Even though the favorite won, the show horse (Denis of Cork) was making up tremendous ground at the end and may be a factor in the other big Grade I stakes races later in the year. I noticed that NBC spent basically their whole first hour of airtime featuring celebrities and talking about their hats. Having spent a significant amount of my college experience at Keeneland, I wanted horse stories.<br>
ESPN ran their feature on the Affirmed-Alydar Triple Crown series twice and that reminded me what a wonderful period the seventies were for horse racing - Riva Ridge & Secretariat winning back to back Derbys for the Chenerys, the Affirmed-Alydar rivalry, and the Seattle Slew Triple Crown. That was really a Golden Age for horse racing.</p>
<p>I was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. The private school I attended in high school was located next to Churchill Downs and we could often hear the weekday races as they were announced. While living in Louisville, I never had much of an interest in getting caught up in the traffic and crowds that surrounded the Derby. We often had derby parties, though, making a day of it with family, friends and neighbors. Last year, while visiting my parents, we decided we would take a tour of Churchill Downs and catch a couple of races. We had a very nice time and it brought back some fun memories. My mother’s birthday was yesterday, and when I called with birthday wishes, she was giving me a rundown of the activities of the day. We were in the process of traveling home from Arkansas (helping our daughter bring back items from college that were too large to fit in her car) and I had fallen asleep before the big race. My husband shook me awake right before the starting gun was fired so I could hear the race. I was just heartbroken to hear about the filly, Eight Belles.</p>
<p>I was just looking at some sports sites on the web (our local baseball team is playing well, basketball team is getting creamed)-- anyway, I stumbled across (sorry for the poor choice of words) a photo taken of Eight Belles just a her ankles broke and she was collapsing onto the track. My heart and stomach sunk. I wish some discretion would be used in the selection of photos to publish. That image is still in my head- and truly painful on all fronts.</p>
<p>Oh, I am now so glad I wasn’t there - just heartbreaking!</p>
<p>Would someone let me know when I can watch the news again? Who do they think wants to see those horrible pictures? I haven’t been able to watch the news since the race without having my finger on the remote ready to switch channels.</p>
<p>PETA is calling for suspension of the jockey and trainer. I would assume vets and officials will be going over the tapes very very carefully to see if something may have occurred earlier.</p>
<p>I know nothing about horse physiology, but aside from the “bred with too delicate bones,” and the hard-racing surface theories, I also heard someone report recently that when a horse is completely exhausted, it’s muscles are spent and can’t function, so the stress and work of the leg then falls to the skeleton, which in some cases is just too much. That seems to make sense. </p>
<p>Poor thing.</p>
<p>I think a major problem is racing 3 year olds and younger. The United States is one of the few countries that race such young thoroughbreds. There was an interesting piece on our local news describing the immature skeletal structure of these young horses and the trend toward breeding huge chest/lung capacity on delicate leg structures. </p>
<p>My grandmother’s mother is from Kentucky and her father from Tennessee…and prior to migrating to Texas, the family business was breeding and showing Tennessee Walkers. You want to read about some cruel and inhumane breeding techniques, just google that topic. Makes me shudder. I don’t even want to know if our family farms participated in such terrible stuff.</p>
<p>The other industry that just breaks my heart is greyhound racing. What beautiful sweet dogs. If you ever want to ‘save’ a deserving animal (and if you don’t have cats), consider adopting from greyhound rescue.</p>
<p>My heart dropped when I got my mail today. My work place must have mailed out these envelopes on Friday or Saturday before the race. They have given each employee four free guest passes to the Arlington Race Track (biggest horse race track in the Chicago area). I’ve never been… never really had any interest in going, but had I gotten these two weeks ago, I might have considered it considering the tickets are free. I just don’t think I can now.</p>